There is such a beautiful community spirit and intimate atmosphere to today's wedding film, it's guaranteed to brighten up your weekend.
Captured by the wonderful Maira Martins, Elsa and Joel's DIY wedding in Sweden was a family affair, where everything from the food to the decorations to the entertainment was created by the couple and their guests.
And the results are pretty special…
It's weddings like this one that show you don't need a big budget, fancy venue, or professional expertise to put together a meaningful celebration. All you need is a little creativity and a lot of love.
We'll let gorgeous bride Elsa tell you how she and Joel created their day…
From The Bride
It was the hottest day of summer, the sun was shining and the atmosphere was filled with happiness and love.
A big day that I’ll never forget, and that I dream about all the time.
If I could make just one wish, I would wish to get to experience the wedding day all over again. Exactly how it was.
It was the most wonderful day of my life and I’m so thankful for all the people that made it so.
When we were planning the day, we wanted it to feel personal and to be our style. We did pretty much everything by ourselves, except for the clothes and cakes.
The theme of the day was our love, with a touch of countryside and nature. I wanted my bouquet to look a bit wild, so we did a mixture of different flowers and leafs in soft green and peach colors.
On the tables we matched the bouquet with cut flowers in different glass bottles.
I fell in love with my dress, but didn’t buy it at first sight. I thought I would give the dress searching some more time, but the dress kept showing up in my mind. It was the one. So I went back to the store, and it was gone. Of course. Like a bad joke.
I started to search for the same style with no results. I went everywhere on the internet and after months I finally found it again.
A bride who was selling her dress in a town 2.5 hours from me, one size smaller than me, but I did buy it. We did some sewing and I did some running, and the week before the wedding the dress was perfect!
The shoes were also a last minute thing. I wanted feminine clogs and found them at Swedish Hasbeens, in an old pink color. I was in love!
We had decided that Joel should wear a tuxedo, but when he tried it on we just laughed. It did not fit him at all.
So by accident we saw this black suit in the boutique and it looked like it was made for him. And I’m glad he changed his mind about the bow tie. So handsome!
The ceremony in church was a big part of the day.
It started with a song played by violin and organ when the bridal party was walking down the aisle, and then we walked in together with our pastor (that was Joel's aunt, which made the ceremony very personal).
We had two songs played in church, both performed by our friends. One was a classic love song and the other one was “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts, played with acoustic guitar. We’re huge fans of FRIENDS, so the choice of that song was not a big surprise.
The evening started with a toast outside so we could enjoy the sunny weather, and then we headed in to the venue to see how wonderfully our families had made the decorations.
We were not allowed to see anything before the wedding day, so this was a big surprise.
But the surprises were not ending there, the whole night our guests did performances up on the stage, like dancing, singing, talking, acting, and they also organized some funny games for us.
It was super fun and we laughed so hard the whole evening! It was just wonderful and we felt so loved by our guests that had taken all this time and courage to do this for us! It’s truly hard to pick a favourite moment…
{Elsa & Joel} Wedding Highlights ~ Trailer from Maira Martins on Vimeo.
Isn't it special? I just love Elsa's dress search story, and the variety show from their friends and family is such a sweet idea, like an old school town talent show – what fun!
Thanks so much to Maira Martins Photo + Film and the gorgeous Elsa and Joel for sharing their beautiful wedding with us.
For more gorgeous wedding videography, head to our Film Gallery (it's pretty awesome!)
